Sub Rosa has just released an album by Israël Quellet entitled "Soni Sclavus"

Israël Quellet's biography starts like this:

"born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 1972. he worked in the psychiatric field for several years. at 16, he discovers on his own some different soundworlds, such as Miles Davis's electric era, Sun Ra, Dub, German cosmic music, Magma, Zappa and many more."

And to celebrate, I'm going to do a couple of live chats next week over at RadioKeneally.com.Chat #1 is Monday, Nov. 2, 8:00 pm East Coast time. Chat #2 is Tuesday, Nov. 3, 12:00 pm noon East Coast time. RadioKeneally.com! Come chat with me!

Scott Chatfield sent me a small boatload of questions about Scambot; here's my responses:

Q. In a nutshell, what is Scambot about?

A. Antagonistic consciousness manipulation, a/k/a soul control.

Q. Who did you write Scambot for?

A. Anyone who makes time to sit down with a good set of headphones and a clear head, and listen to an entire album from start to finish. I still love to listen to whole albums whenever I can. I think it's a fantastic art form.

Q. When you began the project, did you have a clear vision of its direction, musically and narratively?

A. Not at all; it started as a drawing, a one-page comic strip continuity I drew in my sketchbook while I was working on Wooden Smoke in 2001. I made up this little character named Scambot, spontaneously drew his character design. He seemed grumpy, and he had a weird friend who felt compelled to loudly defend him against critics: "Scambot ain't RONG!" he said. I showed it to Scott Thunes in 2003 and he shook his head and said "I don't like it." I realized then there was something intrinsic in the character of Scambot that made me need to rescue him, make SOMETHING interesting of him. Over time I developed this idea of simultaneously devising a narrative (which might possibly mutate into a comic strip or an animated cartoon or a stage presentation or whatever) alongside a set of new music which would be influenced by the narrative, and that new music would inspire further narrative work which might inspire me to draw new characters, etc. Each prong of the creative fork inspired the other prongs to further achievement. The final important component of creating Scambot was that I imposed no schedule pressures on the process; it would take shape at its own pace. I ended up releasing 6 or 7 other projects while working on Scambot, starting with the release of Wooden Smoke in 2001 to Wine And Pickles in 2008 - while I was putting together all of that stuff, Scambot was developing in the background, and finally in 2005 it became my primary concern. Enough music was created to form the foundation of three volumes of music, and the plotline was developing in a way which made me realize that I really wanted to take my time in telling the story as well. Instead of trying to complete the whole trilogy and release it as a set, it made obvious sense to release it in installments.

Q. Scambot 1 has some very accessible songs along with some of the most complex, layered music you've ever produced. How would you suggest that a listener approach this record?

A. With an open mind and an adventurous disposition. And feel free to pause every so often; it's 67 minutes long, it's a lot of music. Maybe take time to mentally "turn the side over" every 16 minutes. Or crank the whole thing loud from start to finish, whatever gets you off.

Q. Are the story and characters an integral part of Scambot's music, or can story and music be enjoyed independently?

A. I discovered early on that I didn't want the plot of Scambot to demand undue attention; the plotline and characters, ultimately, were a kind of ruse to inspire me to create different kinds of music. The story is a luxury - the point of the album is the way it sounds. I didn't want to clutter it up with dialogue and exposition - it's such an abstract story anyway, and it didn't need to be spelled out letter by letter in the audio. The story - at least, the initial stab at it - is in the CD booklet for people who are interested, and it adds depth to the listening experience.

Q. Did the Scambot characters arrive in your imagination fully formed, or did they develop over time?

A. These are good questions! I sketch junk all the time, and most of the specific character ideas arrived after drawing them. What happens is a face or body shape will materialize in my mind - I'm not thinking about inventing characters or even of something to draw, necessarily - and I'll quickly sketch it out. If it looked interesting, it was likely to be drafted as a Scambot character, and then I'd invent a backstory and a way to insert them into the plot. I just wanted to create something long-form and intriguing, and would accept input in any shape and form.

Q. Do you see the Scambot saga manifesting into other media in the future?

A. Oh yep. I have an urge to do a comic strip, heavily influenced by the 60s strip Odd Bodkins by Dan O'Neill. The plan is to present the strip online, running concurrently with the 3 albums as they're released, and eventually collect the strips in a book once the whole trilogy has been released. I'd also be real delighted to see these characters animated. And eventually I will take some representation of this music to the stage, although I don't think I'd consider a heavily narrative stage version until at least Scambot 2 has been released. But if possible (given other projects going on, including work on a second album of Steve Vai solo piano reductions, a collection of new songs co-written with Andy Partridge, and my touring as guitarist with the [adult swim] metal band Dethklok - the new album The Dethalbum II recently debuted at #15 on the Billboard pop chart, and as I write this we're halfway through a six week tour with Mastodon, so there's momentum for us to continue touring in 2010), I'd love to take an ensemble out next year to perform Scambot music. It won't be easy to construct the instrumentation for a group that can do justice to all the textures and styles in the album, but it'll be fun.

Q. I can't count the number of times I walked into the studio to find you leaning back in a chair listening to mixes, headphones on, eyes closed, and a gigantic smile spread across your face. How do you feel when you listen to Scambot 1?

A. I imagine, exactly the way I looked then. I love it. But I also feel that the styles covered on this first volume have been thoroughly dealt with here, and that the next two albums will differ significantly in style. I envision Scambot 2 being much heavier and faster, and Scambot 3 as airy and slow.

Q. What were your most pleasant experiences making the record? Most difficult or frustrating?

A. I honestly can't categorize my feelings what way. The whole experience is one huge pleasure blob to me and I'm very excited about continuing work on Scambot 2 (I'm targeting early 2011 for its release).

Q. How can the second disc from the Special Edition, Songs & Stories Inspired by Scambot 1, enhance a listener's appreciation of Scambot?

A. First of all I want to be clear that the second disc of the Scambot 1 Special Edition is not Scambot 2 (which is about one-third recorded right now). Songs & Stories Inspired by Scambot 1 uses plot material which fits into the continuity timespan depicted on Disc One. Some of the songs were intended for the main disc but didn't fit for time reasons. The majority of the material was created specifically for this disc, done very quickly and spontaneously, as a spasmodic, cathartic response to finally finishing the first disc after so many years. The raw approach of Disc Two contrasts the relative polish of Disc One and I think they work nicely together as a listening experience. Also, if you're concerning yourself with the narrative as it appears in the CD booklet text, there are major tentpoles of the plotline which are fleshed out musically on Disc Two. So you would want the Special Edition in order to hear the whole story.What else is up. The Dethklok tour roars onward. Tonight was a sold out gig in NYC (and I met David Cross backstage - I nearly swooned). Tomorrow night is Halloween in Washington DC. Seriously, see this tour if you can. We're just over halfway through, you got plenty of chances. I hung out for most of the day with Paul Green, that was fun. I've got a couple of Cream Tribute gigs with Kofi Baker in early December. The guys in Mastodon are all outrageous and entertaining to hang with. And I'm completely deliriously sleepy right now.

Everyone of you knows, or should know, that I'm a big Zappanale fan.Zappanale is not just a festival, it is an important part of my life.

The absolute highlight of the 20th edition of the festival, especially from a nostaligic point of view, was the Grande Mothers concert: Napoleon Murphy Brock, Don Preston, Roy Estrada (plus Robbie 'Seahag' Mangano and Chris Garcia) playing the music of Frank Zappa.It was great to see those guys on stage again.

As you know, some of the Zappanale concerts get recorded and are made available in very limited quantities (20 copies). They are sold at the festival, during the festival, and most of these are gone in a couple of hours time.This years batch looks very impressive: Grande Mothers, Project/Object, Sheik Yerbouti, Acid Mothers Guru Guru Gong, and more.

The crew also recorded Discus, Steve Hillage and Gong, but they didn't get permission from these bands to release the material.

Last August, in Bad Doberan, I went to Jim Cohen's fabulous discussion of Billy The Mountain. It's fascinating how a piece of music that you have known and sung along for so many years, can still be the subject of an impressive lecture.

After Jim's show, there was a nice discussion with Paul Carr who's an academic at the Glamorgan University in the UK, and who has written various papers on the subject of Frank Zappa's music.

Joseph Diaz (or 'J21')'s name should ring a bell.J21 put together the "Eyeinhand" sampler CD in 2001, and more recently he surprised a lot of people with "Yellow Mind : Blue Mind", a very impressive album (featuring Ed Mann and Trey Gunn to name a few).

About a week ago, J21 did an interview with Steve Vai.

Go to the J21 MySpace page, check out a sample of his music, and read his interview with Steve (= his latest blog-entry).

Either you like them, or you don't, but you do have to admit that Paul Green is doing an impressive job. He's not just teaching kids how to play rock music. He's making them experience what it's like to play Zappa music as well. And they get the opportunity to work with people that have played in the Zappa band too.

This limited "Zappanale 20" DVDR-video release shows that these kids are doing an okay job. They still have a way to go, but this recording shows that they have a lot of fun doing so.

Project/Object has graced Bad Doberan and the Zappanale festival with its presence three times already: July 2002, August 2007, and August 2009.

This year, P/O brought along Ike Willis and Don Preston. It was good to see Don on the stage, and Ike was more present then ever. The secret word (or sentence) for the evening was "American, we're killing the girl tonight.". Don't know where that came from, but it sure was funny.

The Zappanale gig was great and the band brought out Robert Martin and Denny Walley for a couple of songs as well.Another highlight of 2009. And I didn't even mention Dr.Dot who did an excellent job as Mary...

Released on vid in a limited quatity on DVDR, and made available at the festival only.

Prior to the Zappanale concert in Bad Doberan, Germany, last August, Sex Without Nails Bros. had been playing in a club in Hamburg for a couple of weeks.

I wanted to check them out, but they weren't too high on my list as I remembered from the previous times that I had seen them as being a bit too 'musical-like'. Over-acting and overdoing it...Well, they sure proved me wrong.I missed the first part of their set, but what I did see was great.The sound was good, the arrangements were good, ... The band rocked, and I just love Zebo Adam's guitar tone.

Most memorable event was that they played 'Whippin' Post' and that FZ himself joined the band on a big video screen to play the guitar solo.Wonder where they got that idea... But it fitted in nicely.

An excellent concert, and also made available on DVDR-video in a limited quantity of 20 copies.

The great thing about Zappanale is that every year, besides the dose of Zappa music, you get to see something new. For most of us, this years biggest surprise was Discus. I had never heard them, I had never seen them, and they blew me away.

For me personally, the band that I really wanted to check out was Acid Mothers Guru Guru Gong.The Acid Mothers Guru Guru Gong band was made up of:

German band Sheik Yerbouti was on of the top acts of the latest Zappanale. They played an acoustic set in Hamburg (with Napoleon Murphy Brock), and played an incredible, astonishing electric set in Bad Doberan a couple of days later.

The show got recorded, and a DVDR-video was made available at the festival in a very limited quantity of 20 copies.

The concert featured special guests Napoleon Murphy Brock, Robert Martin and Denny Walley, and I'm convinced that they had a good time as well.The good news (for those who weren't able to find this little gem) is that the Zappateers are seeding a slightly enhanced version of this recording. They've taken the above mentioned video footage and added the audio from an excellent audience audio recording.

Vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz’s Rolldown ensemble has a new album out."Varmint" is the band’s second release and it’s worth checking out. The album offers a fine number of beautiful melodies and excellent improvisations, all against a swinging rhythm section. The quintet features Josh Berman on cornet and Aram Shelton on alto sax, both adding nice lines and solos in Adasiewicz pieces.Let’s call it Modern Jazz.

Ergo’s "Multitude Solitude" is another Cuneiform release.Ergo consists of trombonist and composer Brett Sroka, keyboardist Carl Maguire and drummer Shawn Baltazor, each of which have an interest in jazz and in electronic music."Multitude Solitude" reflects a spacy exploration, a search for melodies and sounds.

Colin McLean and Andy Moor both used to be part of the Scottish punk band The Dog Faced Hermans. In the early ninetees both of them moved to Amsterdam. Colin McLean started working for theater and dance companies, and Andy Moor joined The Ex.On "Everything But The Beginning" you get to hear the soundscapes that McLean (computer) and Moor (guitar) created for a dance company.These soundscapes were completely improvised and are the evidence that the interaction between these two artists works.Dark & experimental!

Earlier this month, Dutch Zappa (re)coverband The Foolz performed in Germany.Bazbo was there as well, and he brought his camera along:

Bazbo recorded nine tracks. Check out his YouTube video collection for more Foolz in Germany.Ké (on violin) gives a nice extra touch, and special guest Billy sure knows how to throw a party.Way to go, Billy...

The 2002 "Hardbite" album by fusion guitarst Endel Rivers features Allan Zavod on keyboards.As you might expect from a fusion guitarist, this is an instrumental album. Fine solos on shifting modes and keys. I like it.

"After their start in 1979 The Ex developed over the years into a melting-pot of divergent musical styles: noise, rock, jazz, improvisation, and ethnic music have been interweaved under one unique umbrella: 'Ex-music'. Discordant, highly rhythmic guitars, the rolling, almost African drumming style, and the furious delivery of the often sarcastic lyrics give the music of The Ex its special character."

In 2002, the band did a couple of concerts as "The Ex Orkest" during which they performed Don Van Vliet's 'Suction Prints'.At least two FM recordings of these concerts circulate. Check out DimeADozen.

He also worked with Marion Brown, Bill Barron, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Steve Lacy to name a few. He even played mainstream music with Mary Lou Williams, and the blues with Muddy Waters.

Boykins went on to lead the Free Jazz Society and then went into the Melodic Art-Tet.When Bernard Stollman asked him to record for ESP in 1964, Boykins said that he was not ready. Eleven years later, in 1975, he was.

Evil Rabbit Records is a small dutch label, run by artists, run for artists.And it shows. Beautiful packaging and a beautiful recording.

Between late 2006 and early 2007, Esmée Olthuis (saxes) and Albert van Veenendaal (piano) invited a number of their dutch collegues for a series of concerts at the Bethaniënklooster in Amsterdam, NL.Corrie van Binsbergen, Joost Buis, Wilbert de Joode and Han Bennink each joined the duo on a couple of pieces and the result is astonishing."The Mystery Of Guests" brings us recordings from these Bethaniënklooster sessions.

"In Search Of Syd" was a sampler that was included with Mojo magazine. Don't know the issue & don't know the year of release, but it sure did include some nice bands, one of which was the Mothers Of Invention:

spacemen 3: things'll never be the same (pierce, kember) 5:49

the flaming lips: she is death (the flaming lips) 4:00

blind boy fuller and floyd council: if you don't give me what i want (trad.) 2:53

Steve is bringing his Alien Guitar Secrets Master Class to Calgary and Toronto in November!

Sunday, Nov. 22Venue: Engineered Air TheaterCity: Calgary, CanadaTime: 3:00pmTickets to the Calgary master class are available through Music Center Canada West (tel. 1-403-246-6480.) http://www.musiccentrecanada.com/

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

In 2000, Sjako! released "Page".The album 'Page' was available in three different editions: the single cd, the limited edition double cd (with a live bonus disc), and the single super audio cd.This is the limited edition with the live bonus disc, a bonus disc that includes 'Even More Trouble', a Zappa / Sjako! composition.

2009/10/12 - San Jose, CAZappa vocal legend and 2008 Grammy Award recipient Napoleon Murphy Brock plans to release a CD of vintage live recordings in December 2009 entitled 'This is What Frank Zappa Heard - Just in Case You Were Wondering - Live at the Red Noodle in Waikiki, Hawaii'. Fans worldwide have heard Napoleon's extraordinairy vocals, sax and flute on such beloved Zappa albums as 'Roxy & Elsewhere', 'One Size Fits All', 'Bongo Fury' and 'Thing Fish', not to mention his work with keyboardist, and fellow Zappa alumni George Duke, as well as the recent incarnation of the Grande Mothers Re-invented.

On August 8th, 1973, Frank Zappa was alerted by his road manager, Marty Perellis, that an incredible band with an extraordinary lead singer was performing downtown to a standing room only audience ... and that it might be wise that he come and see this for himself. When Zappa went to the club and watched the show, he saw a young talent sing, dance, play sax, flute and key boards, in a manner that clearly made it appear that he was having more fun than even the other patrons in the club. After two hours of observing and listening to this young man and his very disciplined band of musicians, he introduced himself as Frank Zappa, and the young man introduced himself as Napoleon Murphy Brock. The next words out of Zappa´s mouth were, "You are my new lead vocalist."

"As I understand it, he had just finished touring Australia, and they were getting ready to go to Europe a week or two after that," recalls Napoleon to Andrew Greenaway. "And he was taking a little break. He stopped off in Hawaii for a week or so. And his road manager, Marty Perellis, set Frank up in a hotel and then went out walking around in Hawaii probably to see if he could get lucky or something! If you want a good time, what better place to do it than in Hawaii? Hawaii is literally paradise. And he came to a show of mine outside a nightclub at the Coral Reef hotel and got curious as to why there was a line of people waiting to get into a place on a Wednesday night. He didn't recognize the name of the band, so he thought he'd get in line and come in and see why everybody was queuing up. The reason that people would line up in front of the 'Red Noodle' every night is because the club owners always hired us, and brought us to play and perform for the local people of Hawaii. The locals would get off of work between 10 pm and 11 pm. They had until 12 midnight to get in the club, after which time the tourists would be let in until the club capacity was met. We played 7 nights a week, from 10 pm until 4 am".

The band's name was "Communication Plus - music that 'communicates' to the listener and dancer, 'plus' music you can feel," explained Napoleon. "Anyway, Marty came into the club and saw us playing didn't recognise us, because no one knew about us except the club owners that hired us and the people who came to see us. He ran back to the hotel, woke Frank up and said, 'Hey, get your clothes on, I just found your new lead vocalist'. Frank got up, came by to the hotel, stood in line like anybody else and once he got in he sat at the back of the room there weren't any seats. We were quite popular there, because we were a band from the mainland. In Hawaii, a band from the mainland if you play halfway decent music you're like a star, you have star status over there. And also the music in Hawaii is like a month behind". Napoleon joined Zappa's group in October 1973 and remained until 1976 recording some of Zappa's most notable albums.

This historic performance was taped on TEAC 4 Track Reel to Reel on August 8th, 1973 and has been digitally enhanced, and the final mix done in stereo surround sound in Hamburg, Germany. It will put you at the next table to where Frank was sitting, and you will experience what Frank Zappa experienced and what later was described as "the audition of a lifetime". Some of the songs covered include Nilsson's "Coconut", Carol King's "So Far Away", James Brown's "Make It Funky" and Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" to name a few. 'This is What Frank Zappa Heard - Just in Case You Were Wondering - Live at the Red Noodle in Waikiki, Hawaii' is currently available for pre-order from Napoleon's official website. He will also autograph copies on request.

In other news, Napoleon will be performing in concert with keyboard legend and fellow Zappa alumni George Duke on October 31, 2009 at the Amsterdam Jazz Festival in the Netherlands. The ensemble will be backed by the Metropole Orchestra. All the music performed at the concert with the Metropole Orch will be original compositions written by George Duke and Napoleon Murphy Brock only. For more information on the concert go to: http://www.amsterdamjf.nl/

Here's something completely different. The Trame Trio is a French trio that performs jazz, classical and traditional material.The remarkable thing about the Trame Trio is that it features piano, drums, and a hurdy gurdy !!A hurdy gurdy (or draailier in dutch, or vielle à rou in french) has a beautiful sound, and Gilles Chabenat sure knows how to play it."Changer D'Air" is more of a showcase for the hurdy gurdy than an actual album. All the pieces sound good, it's just too much of a mixture of different styles of compositions to make up 'an album'.

Did I mention that it includes a nice version of Frank Zappa's 'Peaches En Regalia'? Well, it does, and it does sound nice.

Panzerballett has a new album out.I know, I know, ... I told you this a little while ago already, but I really have to tell you about this one.

One of the great things about listening to performers that have one or more Zappa pieces in their repertoire is that you will come across some exciting stuff.Panzerballett is the perfect example.Panzerballett plays what one might call metal jazz. Heavy instruments, heavy sound, and floating between metal and jazz.'The Simpsons' tune is fabulous. The 'Zappa Medleys' (there's two of them) are something that you really need to hear, and there's a lot more of impressive material on this disc.Most of the tracks on "Hart Genossen" are coverversions. They all get the Panzerballett treatment, and it's great.

Part three and the final part of Adrian Belew's "Sides"-project got released in 2006.As you can imagine, it fits together perfectly with the two previous parts.Typical Belew guitar work, nice songs & the Les Claypool / Danny Carey rhythm section make this another essential Belew album.

I've seen Wouter Planteijdt performing with Corrie van Binsbergen a couple of times, as part of Corrie's Grote Brokken band. The things that I remember best about these concerts is Wouter's high energy level and his excellent solos.With his band Sjako!, Wouter shows that he can do a lot more than play the guitar. "Lucky Spots" hosts a bunch of great songs that remind me of Neil Young and The Travelling Wilburys. Plain, straight-forward, guitar orientated rocksongs. I love it.

Fitting nicely on this album, is the band's rendition of Zappa's 'Magic Fingers'. Wowie Zowie !!This is one great version.It's instrumental, and it also features Rene van Barneveld (Urban Dance Squad) who joined Sjako! a couple of years ago.

October 10 2009: Wow! The entire traveling caravan for the Dethklok/Mastodon tour has just pulled into Denver about four hours late, having been massively delayed en route from Salt Lake City by exciting, nasty icy road conditions. Will we get the show up on time tonight? Who knows?I do know that I thought last night's gig in Utah was awesome, best of the tour so far, at least from my perspective, and that the tour has been wonderful. Also happy that the new Dethklok album has topped the first-week sales of the debut, and appears to have "legs," as they say in the leg business. I'm having a great time out here, very grateful to be out here Klokking again for y'alls.

Also tremendously freaking grateful at the first wave of pre-orders for Scambot 1. Thank you! We are nearly into the manufacturing phase, having completed the artwork this week, and still feel that we'll comfortably be able to begin shipping the album to you by Thanksgiving. Again, your pre-orders help us hugely in getting the album manufactured, so thank you thank you, and if you haven't pre-ordered yet, I think that you consider doing so either right this moment, or later tonight or tomorrow afternoon when you have a little time to spare.

I'm keeping this short, but in closing I want to remind you that Bryan Beller and I will be doing another My Keneally tour, this time starting on the West Coast, beginning January 18th. If you want to host a Keneally/Beller performance around that time, suggest songs for us to play and generally be our pal, please write to mykeneally@keneally.com and we'll make it be so!

"California" concludes the Mr.Bungle story.It's the band's third and last album (when you're not counting "Bowel Of Chiley" which was released without the band's permission).Nice. Fun. Not as experimental as "Disco Volante", but still an album that I enjoy listening to.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

You probably know that in the late sixties you could subscribe to the Mothers fanclub, called United Mutations.Here's a nice picture of the membership card that you received at the time.It's Ken 'Easy Ed' Edwards' card. He was member 167 !

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Next month we have THREE new Residents releases hitting our shelves. And if you preorder, they'll hit the envelopes and be on their way to you before the date of release!

We have:The Ughs! Which was the musical sketchbook for Voice of Midnight, as The Residents created a fictional band called The Ughs! to create their musical ideas for Voice of Midnight.

10 Little Piggies: A futuristic compilation containing tracks that will be part of bigger releases coming up in the next year.

Is There Anybody Out There DVD: A DVD presentation of the Bunny Boy online video series. This has been edited, streamlined and altered to work in a DVD format.

is that all?NO!

Part 2 of our Buy or Die shirt series is available, by itself, or as part of this package. This is the classic Gary Panter skull drawing (taken from the Buy or Die 7") white ink, screen printed on black tee.

But remember, if you don't PREORDER the Buy or Die tee, you won't get one, and you only have until Oct. 22nd.

The release for the discs is Nov 3rd, and we should be receiving our stock before then, so that we can ship a couple of days before Nov 3rd. If you do not order your discs by Oct. 22, there's no guarantee that we'll have the shipment to you by Nov 3rd. (well, since we rely on the US postalservice, there's no guarantee anyhow, but you get what we're sayin').

You have yer choice of the BIG package deal (save more doh!), the packaged deal without the shirt or the discs individually.

The Steve Vai package landed in my mailbox last friday.I only wanted to take a close look at the DVD, but when I stopped, it turned out to be two and a half hours later.Abducted by aliens? No, no. I just had to watch the entire DVD set...

Boy, this is good.Steve Vai (and his band) just keep getting better and better. And I don't just mean technically. I'm talking composition, performance, the whole lot."Where The Wild Things Are" surprises me like "Flex-Able" did 25 years ago.I think of Steve Vai as a great artist. He's very high on my list. Every show that I see, every album that I listen to, I'm amazed."Where The Wild Things Are" does not just amaze me, it absorbs me completely.

Steve Vai, again, takes it one step further.Essential listening.Available as double DVD set, as a CD, or together with a bonus download.

We hereby direct your attention to the emergence of a strange unknown creature, never before seen on Broadway: an Online Journal of Zappology.

This journal, to be known henceforth as The Rondo Hatton Report, is an independent electronic platform where people can creatively confess their addiction to the music of Frank Zappa.

Contributions are welcome from all, but unlike a forum or a blog, you are invited to poot forth a text of between 500-1500 words on a theme of your choice -- and, just to make things more exciting, wait for the next edition to get or make a response.

The first edition of the journal will be uploaded to the site on December 21, 2009, and updated thereafter at three-monthly intervals. Start writing now. You know you want to! Visit rhreport.net for details on how to share your aroma.

On the KMFDM album "Don't Blow Your Top", in the track with the same name, no fewer than five different Zappa tunes contribute lyrics: 'Son Of Suzy Creamcheese', 'I'm The Slime', 'Dirty Love', 'The Orange County Lumber Truck' and 'Bow Tie Daddy'.

Here are the lyrics:

Don't Blow Your Top

I'm obsessed and derangedFor I am destined to ruleAnd I just can't believe thatYou are such a foolI don't need your sweet devotionI don't want your cheap emotionYou will do as you are told'til the rights to you are sold

The Snapper Music label has issued a series of discs on which they take a closer look to the music that influenced certain artists.Here's "The Roots Of Frank Zappa".We all know that Zappa was influenced by L.A. doo-wop, by early rhythm 'n blues and by contemporary classical music. Snapper has collected a number of these rare tracks, a number of which have been mentioned by Zappa in interviews. The result is rather astonishing. Johnny Guitar Watson, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Edgard Varèse, The Spaniels and The Paragons can all be found on this disc. And they match together perfectly.

This means that Snapper did a good job. Listening to "The Roots Of Frank Zappa" gives you familiar sounds. It's great to hear what Frank Zappa was listening to in his early years and how this influenced his musical output.Maybe some examples of the more 'cartoon-esque' music of Raymond Scott or Spike Jones would have made this compilation more complete, but that's just a minor remark. This is a great bunch of songs.

johnny guitar: watson space guitar

clarence "gatemouth" brown: okie dokie stomp

hank ballard & the midnighters: rock, granny, roll

johnny otis: head hunter

the five satins: to the aisle

the elegants: little star

edgard varèse & juilliard percussion orchestra: ionisation

big mama thornton: hound dog

don & dewey: koko joe

guitar slim: oh yeah!

the dubs: could this be magic

the nutmegs: story untold

maro ajemian: third interlude

howlin' wolf: moanin' at midnight

muddy waters: standing around crying

sonny boy williamson: don't start me talkin'

hank ballard & the midnighters: work with me annie

edgard varèse: interpolations from deserts: interpolation III

the paragons: florence

the spaniels: goodnight, sweetheart, goodnight

I'm not the biggest fan of compilations, but "The Roots Of Frank Zappa" is the exception on the rule.Recommended listening.

BGO Records has re-released the two first Adrian Belew albums on one CD.We're talking "Lone Rhino" from 1982, and "Twang Bar King" from 1983.If you don't have the original albums, this is a fine opportunity.

Talking about DoubleYouSee's latest "Playing In Tongues" album a couple of weeks ago, made me replay his previous releases.I added "Trance Formed" to the UM data files and remembered why I wasn't too fond of this release. Ambient stuff.Go for "Playing In Tongues" !!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Here's a message from Burkhard, who runs the excellent www.aaafnraa.de website.

KILL UGLY INTERNET RADIOOn Friday, 2nd October 2009, there will be a radio show about the life and the works of Frank Zappa on internet radio: "Hammaradio". It will be on air from 6 to 10 pm (GTM).

I´ll play lots of songs, that are never played on the radio. You´ll hear coverversions from PhonoOne (Zappanale 20), Nazareth, Ostbahn Kurti and others too.In-between the tracks I´ll tell something about Frank Zappa and I will be giving some information to the people that will hear Frank Zappa for the first time.You can find the station at:http://www.hammaradio.repage1.deClick on "Radio hören" and choose a player - that´s it.

I´d be very happy if you would join the show.If everything works fine there could be more radio shows like this in the future.And you will have the opportunity to make playlists together with me. Let us use this medium to keep Zappa´s music alive.The first Zappa-esque internet radio show !!

The Guitar Master bootleg series countdown continues with "FZ Goes To College".

The famous 1973/11/11 concert with Irma Coffee as special guest!!Don't forget that this is a bootleg album.For the best available quality concert recordings, and for 'liberated bootleg' recordings, check out the Zappateers site!Over at Zappateers, concert recordings are traded for free in a P2P network.

Adding data to the UM Files, here's another Frank Zappa bootleg: May 1st, 1988, the Zappa band in Stockholm with Mats & Morgan guesting on T'Mershi Duween, and Dweezil Zappa on Whipping Post and on the encore.